


Symphogear VK

by worldsbiggestkanadestan



Category: Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24190588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worldsbiggestkanadestan/pseuds/worldsbiggestkanadestan
Summary: Set four months after Symphogear XV, the Symphogears have been rebuilt by Elfnein under the Symphogear System MK2, but now that Earth will soon say hello to unknown potential invaders, will their power be enough to hold off a possible threat?WARNING: Spoilers for all seasons of Symphogear
Relationships: Akatsuki Kirika/Tsukuyomi Shirabe, Kohinata Miku/Tachibana Hibiki, Maria Cadenzavna Eve/Kazanari Tsubasa
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15





	1. Arecibo

_April 26, 2047. 13 days after Kirika’s 17th birthday._ _  
_ _  
_ _S.O.N.G Headquarters, 9:19am._

“Here, something warm to drink.”  
  
“Thanks, it does feel warm.”

Tomosato and Fujitaka had this exchange countless times through the years, always playing the same role. Fujitaka wasn’t allowed to use the coffee machine after a mishap on the first attempt that ended in a small fire and a very angry Ryouko Sakurai.

“Heard from Ogawa yet?” Fujitaka tapped away at his hologramatic keyboard as he asked, not making eye contact. He didn’t expect an answer of any meaning, Ogawa had been gone for several months in search of the original relics.

“Nothing new, but Igalima and Shul Shagana came in today. Elfnein’s making the shards now. She said their Symphogears will be combat ready in a few days if she works non-stop, and a week if she doesn’t. I hope she gives herself a break though.” Tomosato spoke in the same uninterested tone. The retrieval of two new relics was fantastic for S.O.N.G, but they were lacking in a vast amount of firepower. Gungnir and Airgetlam were yet to be recovered, while Ichaival and Ame-no-Habakiri had fully functional Symphogears once more.  
  
Elfnein had worked meticulously after realising that while Sakurai’s Symphogears were destroyed, the relics likely remained safe and could have fragments taken from them once more in order to create new Symphogears. She dubbed the project “Symphogear System MK2”, with the plan of rebuilding the anti-noise armour to their old specifications, with applied alchemy to increase their phonic gain output.   
  
“Same old Elfnein, though the more Symphogears we have the better I suppose. Where are the wielders?”   
  
“At home. It’s not like they have to come in at 9 sharp you know, there isn’t a heap for them to do.” She sighed at him as a small alert appeared on her monitor. “A signal’s coming through. Looks like… a radio telescope? Forwarded by… NASDA?” Tomosato’s eyes widened as she read out the source of the message.   
  
“It came with an audio file, play it.” The navy blue haired girl brought her finger to the air which displayed the audio window, immediately, a coarse, fluctuating noise resonated throughout the command room of the UN organisation. “That sounds horrible!”   
  
“I’ve turned it down, you can uncover your ears, genius.” she rolled her eyes at the cowering officer. “It sounds like a terrible song.”

“According to the sensors, it’s an aufwachen waveform. But it’s even more disorganised than the one from Shem-ha’s bracelet…” Fujitaka’s eyes shot open as he swivelled in his chair and frantically began hammering his keys.

“Well if it’s disorganised, could it be a relic shattering?”

“That wouldn’t make any sense. A relic’s energy isn’t contained and then released. It's constantly emitted, so it wouldn’t spike if it was broken, it would just fade out. That’s what the waveforms are. It’s not more disorganised, it’s more _complex._ If Shem-ha’s was Apple, this is something else entirely…”

“More Annunaki.” She spoke more to herself than her companion, disbelief lining her voice. It had taken everything to defeat Shem-ha. It took Burning X Drive. It took Carol. It took the Symphogears themselves. She slumped back into her chair.

“I’m shocked too, but we need to deal with this. Contact the commander. I’m running the linguistics correction and aging programs as we speak, then I’m going to get a report from Ogawa and contact the military. Assemble the wielders, and tell Elfnein too.” Fujitaka addressed her, despite their equal position and ranking, she got up, composed herself, and walked off, pulling her communicator from her belt as she walked through the automatic hydraulic doors. This was important. 

_9:46am_

“What’s the status?” Genjuro had very few words as the faint hiss of the command room entrance announced his arrival.

“We still don’t know, Commander.” Worry laced Tomosato’s voice as she addressed her boss. “We don’t know what it says, we can’t get a hold of Ogawa, and Elfnein can only reconstruct her memories of Carol, who wouldn’t be fit for combat. We’re defenseless, sir.”  
  
“Now hold on, we don’t know for sure that this is a hostile message yet.” Fujitaka’s eyes left his monitor’s audio display as he swivelled in his chair to confront his partner. His calming voice was a front, but it held firm nonetheless. 

“Fujitaka’s right. We need to stay calm, Tomosato. Overreacting will likely draw an even bigger response from world governments. Let’s focus on decrypting the message.”

“Decrypting what message?” A deep, authoritative woman’s voice rang out from behind the S.O.N.G staff. Genjuro lowered his head and turned to see the flowing pink locks belonging to Maria Cadenzavna Eve, designated S.O.N.G administrative leader. At least, that was her title until Airgetlam was retrieved. With her stood Kirika and Shirabe, who had clearly tagged along with nothing better to do.  
  
“Ah, Maria, as well as Kirika and Shirabe. Hello.”   
  
“Hey to you as well. Now, what were you saying about an encrypted message?” Maria’s tone was firm, assertive, quickly stripping any idea Genjuro may have had to hide information from the wielders. After all, if it wasn’t a threat, they had no reason to know, he thought.

Genjuro closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh before giving them the truth. “We received a message from the Annunaki. NASDA sent it through to us this morning.” The former FIS trio’s faces slowly morphed into sheer shock as the words that their commander spoke to them rang within their ears. It made so much sense that Shem-ha wasn’t the only Annunaki, but Earth was supposed to be abandoned. Shirabe was the first to catch on.  
  


“Wait” the youngest of the wielders spoke with obvious confusion on her face “Shem-ha was meant to be sealed away on Earth, if they know she’s gone, they’re probably coming back just to monitor us, right?”

“Why would you tell people who aren’t meant to know you exist that you’re coming back to monitor them though?” Genjuro muttered quickly, unintentionally shutting down her line of thinking, in response to which Shirabe hung her head.

“Hold on a second, the analysis is done!” Fujitaka raised his hand as if to silence them before unpacking the brand new data.

“What analysis?” Tsubasa asked as she walked in with Chris, Hibiki and Miku not far behind them.  
  
“Annunaki message, the program just finished undistorting it” Maria explained.

“Annunaki? Didn’t we already beat those guys?”  
  
“We beat Shem-ha, Yukine. Not the entire race.” Tsubasa interjected, having understood immediately. Her voice was cold and calculated, as if the situation was already a dire life or death one.

“Quiet, I’m playing the message.” A short sentence played through the main speakers, tampered with by radio interference, though very obviously not Japanese or any other human language.

“The lost universal language.” Maria was the first to vocalise the thoughts of everyone in the room. “How are we going to even figure out what it says?”  
  
“Wait, play it again dess. I thought I recognised something!” Fujitaka rewound the audio clip, and the same grainy lost dialect played once more. The end of the data byte sparked Kirika’s brain once again. It simply sounded like:

_‘S--m-ha’._

“See! Can’t you guys hear Shem-ha in that?” The blonde bounced up and down at the thought of potentially discovering the first breakthrough.

“I think Kirika’s right! It’s fuzzy, but it’s there!” Hibiki agreed, looking towards the rest of the group for approving looks, which were given by everyone except Tsubasa.  
  
“Something doesn’t add up.” The sapphire-haired idol muttered to herself, but still loudly enough for everyone to hear. “If Shem-ha is mentioned at the end of the message, it makes sense for it to be addressing her. Not to mention, if the Annunaki wanted to punish or reward us for defeating Shem-ha, they would know we don’t speak the universal language. That’s why Enki spoke to us in Japanese on the moon.”

“What are you getting at, Tsubasa?” The elder Kazanari asked his niece, whose eyes shot up to meet his own as she spoke with a dead seriousness.

“This message wasn’t meant for us. It was meant for Shem-ha. But it doesn’t make sense for the Annunaki not to know about the Curse of Balal and the Lunar Ruins.” Tsubasa turned from Genjuro’s perplexed face to address her comrades. “Someone’s looking for Shem-ha.”

“Fujitaka. Tomosato. Find every piece of Babylonian text you can, see if any of the words match up. We might be able to translate bits and pieces.” Genjuro addressed his support staff. “We need every piece of information we can get. And find me Ogawa.”

“Yes sir.” 

“Commander.” The screen in front of Genjuro illuminated with the generic-looking, unassuming face of Shinji Ogawa, second in command of S.O.N.G, and professional ninja. Behind him stood blank, decrepit grey walls with no natural light shining on them, the man illuminated only by the forward facing light of his communicator.  
  
“Ogawa. How is the search coming along? We could need Symphogears sooner than we could’ve imagined.”

“Has something happened? I still haven’t been able to find either Gungnir or Airgetlam!”

“We could be under threat from more Annunaki, but we don’t have concrete evidence yet. Can you give me any good news?” The agitation was thinly veiled, despite knowing that Ogawa wasn’t at fault for the lack of relics, Genjuro’s usually calm demeanor was crumbling rapidly at the potential danger ahead.

“Yes sir. While I haven’t found either of those two, I have found this.” Ogawa tilted his receiver to showcase the item he was holding. A circular stone plate with a silver screen in the middle.

  
“Shenshoujing…” breathed Tomosato. “But where did you find it?”   
  
“I didn’t find it. I interrogated _him_.” Ogawa once again turned his communicator’s camera over to the wall on his left. 

A wall of iron bars, behind which sat Fudou Kazanari. Now on death’s row after being found guilty of multiple cases of murder, terrorism, and actively threatening Japanese society.

“Father…” Genjuro grimaced “I hope he was cooperative.”

“Luckily, he was.” Ogawa put on his classic manageresque smile for them. “And even more luckily, it seems the person I’d like to talk to is right there with you.”

“It can wait, Ogawa. Come back to HQ with Shenshoujing immediately though, I’m sure Elfnein would like to see if a gear can be salvaged from it once again.”

“Right away sir.” Ogawa gave one final nod as he shut off his communications link. Genjuro turned back to the group once again.

“I’m going to speak with Elfnein. I suggest you all prepare in one way or another.” The burly officer strutted past the rest of the group and to the laboratory, leaving the wielders with their thoughts, and the administration with their measly amount of data.

_11:20am. S.O.N.G Lab_

Genjuro sat on the bench opposite Elfnein’s relic fragmenting apparatus, eyes locked firmly at his own feet, hands clasped across the gap between his legs.

“Tell me, Elfnein.” he spoke slowly, not sure if he actually wanted the answer that he needed. “Do we even stand a chance against another Annunaki without Carol?” Elfnein finished sprinkling powdered tungsten into her test tube before answering him directly.

“That depends.” Hesitance also outlined her own voice. “How much time we have. How these Annunaki compare to Shem-ha. How many resources we truly have at our disposal. We don’t have enough information to say for sure.”

“So you don’t think we can win?”

“I didn’t say that. But as you said, we don’t have Carol. She dedicated her alchemy as a direct challenge to the gods. ‘Dissect a god, and you can know the world it created.’, she used to say to us. There’s no alchemist in this world who holds power even similar to Carol’s. It’s not that we can’t win, we just have to find a new way to win.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Not at all. We’ve got no Dainsleif and no morally sound means to create a Philosopher’s Stone.” the tiny homunculus sighed, defeated. “But that doesn’t mean we should just give up.”

“I suppose you’re right. But we need something new, huh?” 

“Unless there’s a second Dainsleif or another alchemist killing people out there, that’s the case.”

“What if there was a second Dainsleif?” Elfnein looked up from her work, while Genjuro lifted his head to meet her eyes simultaneously. “What if it didn’t have to be our Dainsleif, or even this world’s Dainsleif?”

“You mean another universe?”

“Gungnir, Ichaival and the Nehushtan Armour weren’t the only relics that Germany sent over during the Second Great War.” Genjuro began explaining to Elfnein, who was now completely fixed on the crimson-clad muscle mountain as he continued his tangent. “They also sent us one other relic. Gjallarhorn.”

“But there’s no Symphogear creation attempt ever listed in the S.O.N.G records for a Gjallarhorn.”

“Because it’s a complete relic. After some study, it was determined that it had the power to send people to other worlds, but activated seemingly at random. Without the certainty that anyone would ever come back, we’ve never used the relic.”

“So you’re suggesting we try and find a way to control the relic and go to another world for help?” 

“Yes. We need another world’s Dainsleif. A new Ignite Module.”

“But you said we don’t even know if someone would be able to return from that other world. It’s too risky.”

“Obviously we don’t want to have to do it!” Genjuro raised his hands to emphasise his backpedalling. "There’s a chance that these Annunaki aren’t even hostile. But maybe we should look into controlling it.”

“The Yantra Sarvaswa. Shirabe’s report said it had only been cut in half, not completely destroyed. There’s a chance we could repair it.” Genjuro straightened up, seemingly done with the conversation after Elfnein’s revelation. “Where are you going?” she asked, rightfully curious.

“To prepare.”

_2:53pm_

_‘All wielders to the command room as possible - Commander’_

“What’s this about?” A skeptical Chris was the first to speak upon Hibiki’s arrival, as she was the last to enter the room.

“A way to fight. We need more relics.” 

“We can’t just get new relics though, Commander.” Shirabe’s curt mannerisms on display as she pointed out a very real fact.

“No, we can’t, but we can retrieve old ones.” he replied, holding up a deep blue wetsuit with two parallel green lines running down each sleeve before throwing it to Kirika, who inevitably fumbled the catch before getting tangled in the limbs of her new apparel.

“Each of you take one of these.” Handing out the wetsuits as he spoke, all of them in the trademark S.O.N.G blue with each wielder’s characteristic colour along the arms and legs. “We leave for the Undersea Dragon’s Palace at 0700 hours tomorrow.”

“But it’s just a pile of rubble.” Interjected Maria, level headed as always but still confused.

“Indeed. But the relics that were inside have been around thousands of years, and there’s a good chance they survived the collapse. You’ll be collecting any relics you can find among the rubble, and specifically aiming for the two halves of the Yantra Sarvaswa. Any questions?”

None of the wielders spoke. “Dismissed.” Genjuro breathed a sigh of relief once his team had left the room. They might have a way to fight after all.

“Commander! We translated the message!” Fujitaka called out from behind him. The larger man almost broke into a sprint approaching the monitor.

“How certain are you?”

“Our estimates say it’s upwards of a 78% accurate translation sir!”

“Quickly then, play it!” Once again, the distorted radio crackles played over the command room’s speakers, only this time, the words between could be understood.

_‘This is -----a. Do you read me, Shem-ha?’_


	2. Recovering the Lost

_April 27th, 1:57am_

_S.O.N.G Laboratories_

The fluorescent lights were dimmed in the early morning lab as the UN’s resident tiny blonde alchemist tinkered away with her new metal floor mat, circuitry yet to be placed under rubber flooring to insulate it. Her boss and giant man mountain stood behind her, at a safe distance from the high voltage currents running to the centre of the room. She stepped back to the side of the commander, barely reaching his waist as he towered over the room and looked down at the switch in her hand.

“So, you can activate it now then?” Genjuro’s gruff voice was laced with the yawns of a late night at the headquarters, pouring over data with the rest of the intelligence team.

“Well… anyone can activate it.” Elfnein spoke with her back to Genjuro, having turned to her right to affix the switch to a circuit board in the wall, another that clearly needed to be placed behind non-conductive materials. He sincerely hoped Elfnein either knew what she was doing or was made of rubber, but since she was known to lock herself away for days at a time in a messy and frankly dangerous environment and be okay, he let it slide. “The problem is keeping it open.” She flicked the switch and the rise in the steel printed floorpiece began emitting a dim, rose red light onto the room. It grew to human size, violet tendrils stretching from the outline of the apparition. The centre brightened to a pinkish white as it established itself as a middle point for the waving, crackling projection. It looked poisonous to the touch.

  
  
“The problem, as you can see, is keeping it open.” Elfnein continued to talk to the wall as she moved a foot over from the switch and began assembling something at the table nearby. Gen’s eyes raced from the shimmering shape to Elfnein as she spoke, then back to the corner. The centre light brightened and the strange object grew to three metres in height before collapsing in on itself with a flash. The S.O.N.G commander raised a forearm to shield his eyes while Elfnein remained unfazed.

“You could’ve warned me about that, you know.” he sighed as he relaxed his shoulder and his arm went slack in front of his body, fatigue too much to even move it properly to his side.

“Sorry, I keep forgetting it does that…” She muttered back apologetically. “I’m never looking at it when it happens so it’s easy to discard.”

“Still, to put together such a world bridge so quickly is very impressive. Once again we’re lucky to have you, Elfnein.” he turned and beamed at the alchemist which he towered over, placing a hand on her head before gently ruffling her fluffy, golden hair. Elfnein went scarlet and reached back to her desk, finding a clipboard before pushing his head sized hand away, brimming with embarrassment.

“It’s not that important! As it stands, we still can’t use it… Ultimately I’ll be saved by the wielder’s efforts again… we need the Yantra Sarvaswa…” She trailed off into her notes.

“You know, Elfnein, they’re all thinking the same thing. While they’re singing and dealing with our most powerful enemies, they’re thinking about how the Symphogears you maintain allow them to do this. How you saved them. Have more confidence in yourself!”

“I’ll try!” she put on a smile for the first time since she heard the news of the message. 

“Though while I say that, is the Yantra Sarvaswa really our only hope?”

“It’s our best hope, but technically we still have this.” Elfnein raised a small, bronzish orb for her commander to see, while releasing a hatch in the wall with her other hand. “An alchemical engine. It will provide a power source strong enough to keep Gjallarhorn’s world bridge open for us.”

“An alchemical engine… like the Philosopher’s Stone?” A muscular hand was raised to his crimson goatee as he racked his brain for alchemical knowledge in an attempt to grasp Elfnein’s words.

“Correct. The Philosopher’s Stone is a glorified alchemical engine. A perfectly efficient one, even if it does source its power from lives. This is a basic one, which will provide enough power for us, should we fail to recover the Yantra Sarvaswa.” Elfnein explained to him, nodding her head as she did so, impressed.

“If the Philosopher’s Stone uses lives, what does this use as its power source?”  
  


“I’ve modified it to use a number of fuel sources, but the easiest to obtain is gold. Gold has always been a fundamental building block of alchemical power.” She looked into her boss’ eyes as she spoke, making sure he understood her words despite his drowsiness. “However, if completely necessary, it can also use memories or lifeforce.”  
  


“Not to worry, I’m sure I can get a bit of gold if we don’t find the relic tomorrow.” he reassured her. “Speaking of, you should really sleep, mission starts soon. I’m heading off now. Oh and, make sure this room isn’t a voltage hazard, okay?” he scooped his jacket off the corner chair and walked to the familiar hiss of the hydraulics of the UN organisation’s base. Elfnein put the engine back onto the table and closed it’s insertion hatch as she found herself agreeing with Genjuro’s words, and walked through the still open door to her bedroom.

_6:58am_

_Japanese Offshore_ _Oceanography_ _Research Station_

The wielders sat alongside a circular pool’s edge, descending into the depths of the ocean. Opposite them stood Genjuro, briefing the mission. Kirika fumbled with the sleeves on her wet suit as the commander spoke.  
  


“Listen up crew! Your mission is the retrieval of the Yantra Sarvaswa! Consider any other relics secondary! Another team will be sent in at a later date for them.” He stepped to the side to reveal a screen controlled by a remote held behind his back, turning it on. “These are all current images we have of the Yantra Sarvaswa.” He scrolled through a collage of pictures depicting the relic, clearly from its initial research phase. “Shirabe cut it straight down the middle, and cleanly. We should be able to restore its functionality if we can find both parts. Now, Tomosato, Fujitaka.”  
The S.O.N.G support staff duo walked up to the line of Symphogear users and handed each of them a small, pink pill with some illegible lettering.

“These are depressurisation pills. Take them now and they’ll kick into your system by the time the diving bell reaches 1800 metres. The palace is 3 kilometres below the surface, you’ll be feeling almost 4500 psi down there. These pills can protect your bodies, but it _will_ be difficult to move. Understood?” The group nodded in reply to his words. “Okay, checklist! Oxygen tanks? Masks? Flippers?” Genjuro was met by another nod for each item he listed off. “Good! Mission is a go, into the diving bell!” The wielders rose from their folding chairs and piled into the ovaluar, elevator sized room. Elfnein sat in the upstairs of the offshore platform’s building, sitting behind an observation window and a control panel. As Maria climbed into the bell as the final wielder, the door hissed shut and Elfnein began to lower the winch.

The gentle clang of the water crane lowering the wielders into the depths of the Pacific Ocean filled the diving bell, its lively load taking moments to look out of the thick glass windows before the view receded into inky blackness. Hibiki turned from the window and pouted back at the center of the room.  
  


“Okay, plan of attack.” Maria began as almost everyone looked back up at her, except for Tsubasa who kept her gaze directly forward at the steel plating, hyperfocused on her task ahead. “Kirika and Shirabe, you’ll take the eastern wing of the ruins. The palace was one big H shape, so Hibiki and Chris, you can take the western wing.” Both duos nodded at her as she continued on, “Tsubasa and I will take one half of the connecting corridor each.” Maria glanced over at the ever-so-diligent sword as she remained looking straight forward, but gave a small nod of acknowledgement. _‘That’s as good as I’ll get’,_ Maria thought to herself. The tall idol spun around to peer into the endless depths of the sea as Elfnein’s voice over a tinny speaker announced they were passing 800 metres in depth.

“Heyhey Shirabe! Do you think we’ll see any sharks, dess?”

“Calm down Kiri, if we did it would be bad… you’re making me scared…” 

“Hey, stop scaring her! We can’t activate our gears down here y’know!”

“Chris is right guys, just relax! I’m sure there won’t be any sharks down here” Hibiki chimed in, trying to lift the mood for her younger wielders, to the effect of calming Shirabe and disappointing Kirika.

“I wanted to see some sharks, dess…” 

“I’ll take you two to the aquarium when we get some time, okay?” Maria’s motherly face making an appearance in her best effort to cheer up her friends.

“Promise, Maria?”

“I promise, we’ll go to the best aquarium we can.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, dess.” 

Elfnein’s voice rang out over the bell’s intercom once more. “Everyone, the bell only reaches 2.5 kilometres down! We’re approaching now, but you’ll have to swim down to the palace ruins.” Hibiki turned her face to the small, black and white camera in the corner of the diving bell and made a thumbs up at it. Back on the surface, Elfnein made a small smile at the positive signal. “We’re slowing down now everyone, prepare to depressurise and leave.” The alchemist took her hand away from the microphone’s on button and brought it to her coffee mug, taking a deep sip.

Rushing water pushed the wielders into each other as the ocean’s deep icy water poured into the vessel, unheated by the sun’s rays that barely penetrated the surface, let alone to three kilometres where the Undersea Dragon’s Palace laid. Maria took charge, lifting her the back of her right hand over her shoulder and raising her middle and index fingers to Hibiki and Chris, signalling to fan out to their side of the ruins. Tsubasa swam ahead of her, Maria didn’t try to stop her. Even if she did, Tsubasa could pull rank if she really wanted to, being the Operations Commander of the Symphogear unit, and the Ukrainian singer knew that her partner knew better than to jeopardise a mission of this importance. Quickly making the same signal to Kirika and Shirabe, she kicked her legs and chased Tsubasa into the centre corridor of the sunken prison.

“So, Shirabe. Where were we when you broke it…?” Kirika asked through her diving microphone, the UN’s technology offering Shirabe nearly a flawless feed despite being several feet underwater.

“The south-eastern corner. We were near the waterborne entrance though, there’s a chance it washed away in the collapse.” Shirabe avoided eye contact as she replied, fearing what would come next.

“You remember! Of course you do! I love your photographic memory, dess!” Kirika beamed under her oxygen mask, unable to see Shirabe’s face as the smaller girl turned away, despite her gear already hiding any blushing she produced.

“It’s not photographic… there’s too many things I’ve forgotten…” 

“But you remember everything from after that right? Then it’s fine, dess! Still, you should really tell the others, even if you only tell them what you do remember from when this happened. It would’ve helped the search.” Kirika gave up on trying to see the embarrassment on her twin blade’s face and panned her head right, the rocks beginning to turn to concrete as they drew ever so closer to the rubble.

“They don’t need to know, they’ll ask questions. And besides, like I said Kiri, it probably moved in the explosion.”

“You’re so pessimistic Shirabeeee, just relax! Last one to the south-east corner is a rotten egg, dess!” Kirika took off with a powerful kick, while Shirabe sighed watching her friend take off into the darkness, visible only through the reflective green strips on their suits shimmering in her flashlight beam, and took off after the emerald stripe.

Chris and Hibiki took off at a sharper angle than the rest of the group, hugging the cliff face as they swam towards their wing of the undersea complex. Hibiki spiralled and barrel rolled in the water, bouncing off the hard granite carefree as ever.

“Hey, moron, can you stop having fun?” Chris asked the hamster-like Gungnir user as she swam normally and directly to her objective.

“Swimming normally isn’t going to change what’s there, Chris! Relax a little!”

“I can’t relax you idiot! This is serious!” Chris slowed as she spoke, coming to a standstill in the water.

“Chris… are you okay?” Hibiki’s neck swivelled as she straightened her body and looked back at her snowy haired companion before slowly floating towards her. Chris spun around in suspension, avoiding the question Hibiki proposed. “If something’s bothering you, you can always talk to me, Chris.”

“Of course I’m bothered!” The hothead turned another 180 degrees back towards Hibiki, eyes shutting at the base as emotions flooded through her brain. “We wouldn’t be risking our lives in the ocean right now if it wasn’t for me! I blew up the palace! I nearly shot my juniors! All my mistakes always come back to me and I-” Hibiki flung her arms in front of her and parted the water between her and Chris, propelling herself forward and reaching out to take Chris’ hand in her own. “What are you doing, moron?!” Chris screamed at her former classmate, almost twisting her neck straight off her head as she tried desperately to look anywhere that wasn’t Hibiki’s amber orbs.

“Chris, no one blames you for those things. You had to stop Carol, right? And you defeated an Autoscorer on your own! And then you saved Kirika and Shirabe from that same demolition job you caused, so it evens out!” Hibiki giggled, more to herself than Chris, as she delivered the last sentence of her talk.

“You have such a simple way of thinking!”

“Maybe! But all we can do now is find it, and that’ll help us won’t it? And if you’re looking, then you’re helping too! You’ve done more than enough atoning.” And with that, Hibiki turned to the rock wall, found a foothold and kicked off in the direction of the Undersea Dragon’s Palace once more, only this time with Chris following her adventurous cliff jumping route.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_At the same time as the Undersea Dragon’s Palace investigation_

_New York City, USA_

The zodiac boat sped along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean as two men sat within its low walled interior, one disregarding his life jacket entirely, opting for instead a suit and tie, hardly swimming attire. The other was in a white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, clearly used to the sea and driving such vehicles. His orange life jacket sat around his shoulders, after all, the Yggdrasil incident had completely unfamiliarised the locals from their usual seafaring patterns, and the trip to Liberty Island was now filled with uncertain wave sizes and shapes. 

“You want me to drop you off right above the crater’s centre? You’re insane, man.” the man spoke to his well dressed passenger with a hearty chuckle.

“That’s right. I’ll be okay, don’t worry.” His light brown hair and matching eyes gave his ferryman a wide, closed mouth smile. “The statue is right next to it, is it not?”

“It is, but I worry about my customers, you know.”

“I assure you I’ll return unharmed, sir.” 

The sun dipped halfway below the horizon of the concrete jungle, and Shinji Ogawa smiled into the sky.

The night made his job easier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is finally out! Writing dialogue is super difficult for me but I'd never want to upload something I'm unhappy with so I do my best every time. If you're coming back to this story, thanks for waiting! If you're new, feel free to provide feedback! I only ask that you try to be constructive and offer methods of improvement :)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at writing anything for any fandom, and while I do have a general plotline and plan, things are subject to change, and obviously, feedback is appreciated!


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